Published in the Nikkei Asian Review 15/10/2019
Japan’s squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup contains a remarkably diverse cast of characters. Flying winger Kotaro Matsushima, who scored a crucial try against Scotland, was born in South Africa to a Zimbabwean father and a Japanese mother. Luke Thompson, the giant second rower who, at 38, is the oldest player in the tournament, hails from New Zealand. Iseleli Nakajima, the Tonga-born prop, has added to his already considerable presence by dyeing his hair and beard blonde.
Altogether, more than half the players are foreign born. The contrast couldn’t be greater with Japan’s national football (‘soccer’) team, which usually features Japanese born citizens who look typically Japanese.
Rugby has always had a flexible approach to eligibility, perhaps reflecting its roots in the British Empire, in which groups of settlers and expatriates would form their own teams. Japan’s current coach Jaimie Joseph is a recent example of that laissez faire attitude. He represented the All Blacks in the 1995 World Cup, then turned out for Japan in the 1999 tournament.
That particular loophole has since been closed, but it remains the case that it is not necessary to be a citizen of a country to feature in its national rugby team. Blood ties, even quite distant ones, are enough, as is residency for a period of three years, soon to be extended to five. Most sports, football included, are much stricter.
By accident, international rugby has become a case study in borderless globalization, with all its benefits and problems. As in the world of business, the top talent goes to where the opportunities are most compelling, which is in the richer economies. The winners are the talents themselves, the organizations – companies, national teams – that use their skills and the customers / supporters.
The losers include the homegrown talent, who have been outcompeted by the new arrivals. English scrum-half Danny Care was voluble in his dissatisfaction at seeing a southern hemisphere import preferred to him in England’s world cup squad.
The real victims, though are barely visible. Just as skilled immigration from the developing world strips the countries of origin of their most educated and ambitious people, the very ones needed to raise standards of living, so the exodus of rugby talent from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa has dragged down the level of rugby competitiveness in those countries.
In relation to their tiny populations, the Pacific Islands have produced an extraordinary number of outstanding rugby players – some of whom now play for the national teams of Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, France and Japan. Some left their homelands at an early age as their families became economic migrants; others later on, when their sporting prowess was evident. What is clear is that if the Pacific Island countries had the economic resources of the developed world, they would be regular contenders for the Rugby World Cup.
Michael Leitch in action
Michael Leitch versus Carlos Ghosn
For the host countries, a different set of challenges arises. How can national identities endure in an age of mass immigration and multiple identities and values? Is there a point beyond which diversity has diminishing or even negative returns? The same goes for sport. Sumo wrestling slumped in popularity between 2003 and 2016, a period in which all the yokozuna (grand champions) were foreign. Then, when Japanese native Kisenosato was promoted to the highest rank, a mini-boom ensued.
The emotional connection between sports fans and their heroes is a delicate thing. If the Brave Blossoms’ entire starting fifteen had been made up of South Africans and New Zealanders, surely the TV ratings for the Japan vs Scotland match would not have hit 54%.
Japan is one of the minority of countries – India, Austria and Singapore are others – that do not allow dual citizenship. At the age of 23, dual citizens are supposed to plump for one and give up the other, as tennis star Naomi Osaka has just done by becoming Japanese.
The best justification for single citizenship is, as writer Nicholas Nassim Taleb said of his decision to become a US citizen and put himself at the tender mercies of the American tax system, is that it gives you “skin in the game.” If there is something you don’t like – the tax system, in Taleb’s case – you don’t jet off to another of your “homelands”, à la Carlos Ghosn. You stay and work for change, via the ballot box, lobbying or other political activities.
As Taleb puts it, “A country should not tolerate fair weather friends. There is something offensive about having a nationality without ‘skin in the game,’ just to travel and pass borders, without wanting the downside of the passport.”
Roughly half of the foreign-born players in Japan’s World Cup squad quite literally have “skin in the game” having taken up Japanese citizenship, thereby relinquishing their former nationality. That includes Captain Fantastic Michael Leitch, or “Riichi Maikeru” as he is known to the Japanese press, with family name first in the Japanese style. Leitch arrived in Japan at the age of fifteen and is fluent in the language. After the Scotland match, he gave opposing flanker, Richie Gray, a present to mark his esteem for a fellow warrior – a replica samurai sword.
Iseleli Nakajima is also a Japanese citizen. In a recent interview with a New Zealand TV channel, he explained that he took his wife’s family name as an expression of love for his adopted home and also an eternal promise to honour his wife and children.
“The people are so nice,” he said. “They are like our people back home. They are very respectful. They have treated me well over the years and I want to repay them by doing my best in this World Cup.”
At the moment, he is probably the most famous “Nakajima” in Japan.
Former Japan captain Toshiaki Hirose started the practice of teaching the foreign-born players to sing Kimigayo, the Japanese national anthem, as a bonding exercise. It is an interesting spectacle to see towering South Africans and New Zealanders struggling through the words of a thousand year old waka poem. It is also an excellent idea. Building team spirit is crucial to success in rugby – and the same goes for nation-states and communities.